and best are used for crutch-stick heads, umbrella handles, and
ink-horns, and the smallest and commonest serve for the tops and bottoms
of ink-horns.
Spoons, small boxes, powder flasks, spectacle frames, and drinking horns
are likewise made of the outer horny case.
The interior or core of the horn is boiled down in water, when a large
quantity of fat rises to the surface; this is sold to the makers of
yellow soap.--The liquid itself is used as a kind of glue, and is
purchased by the cloth-dressers for stiffening.--The bony substance
which remains behind, is ground down, and sold to the farmers for
manure.
Besides these various purposes to which the different parts of the horn
are applied, the chippings which arise in comb-making are sold to the
farmer for manure, at about one shilling a bushel. In the first year
after they are spread over the soil they have comparatively little
effect; but during the next four or five their efficiency is
considerable. The shavings, which form the refuse of the lantern-maker,
are of a much thinner texture. Some of them are cut into various
figures, and painted and used as toys; for they curl up when placed in
the palm of a warm hand. But the greater part of these shavings are sold
also for manure, which from their extremely thin and divided form,
produce their full effect upon the first crop.
FEET.--An oil is extracted from the feet of oxen--hence called
Neat's-foot-oil--of great use in preparing and softening leather.
SKIN, _horns_, _hoofs_, and _cartilages_ are used to make glue.
BLOOD is used in the formation of mastic; also in the refining of sugar,
oil, &c.; and is an excellent manure for fruit trees.
_Blood_, _horns_, and _hoofs_ in the formation of Prussian blue.
_Gall_ is used to cleanse woollen garments, and to obliterate greasy and
other stains.
SUET, FAT, TALLOW are chiefly manufactured into candles; they are also
used to precipitate the salt that is drawn from briny springs.
INTESTINES, when dried, are used as envelopes for German and Bologna
sausages; in some countries to carry butter to market. By gold-beaters,
in the process of making gold-leaf. Gold-beater's skin, as it is called,
forms the most innocent sticking plaster for small cuts on the hands or
fingers.
The STOMACHS vulgarly called _inwards_, after being washed and boiled,
are sold as an article of food under the name of _tripe_.
The EXCREMENTITIOUS MATTERS are used to manure the land.
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